A former East German secret police officer has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for murdering a Polish man trying to flee to West Berlin 50 years in the past.
Martin Naumann, now 80, shot Czeslaw Kukuczka within the again at Friedrichstrasse station in 1974, after he had entered the Polish embassy claiming to be carrying a bomb and demanding to be allowed to depart to democratic West Germany.
Particulars of the killing remained unknown for many years after the Stasi secret police shredded recordsdata referring to the case earlier than communist East Germany reunified with the West in 1991.
Berlin prosecutors filed costs in opposition to him in 2023 after persistent investigations by historians and Polish authorities.
On 29 March 1974, 38-year-old Kukuczka, a firefighter, entered the Polish embassy on East Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard with a briefcase.
The daddy of three mentioned – falsely – that he was carrying a bomb. He demanded to be allowed to depart for West Berlin.
Stasi officers gave him an exit visa and a few West German cash and escorted him to Friedrichstrasse station, which was nonetheless served by trains from the western facet of town.
Kukuczka handed a number of border checks contained in the station. Nonetheless, earlier than he might make it to the West Berlin platform, a person approached him from behind and shot him within the again.
A bunch of schoolchildren from Hesse in West Germany, have been amongst witnesses to the killing. Some gave proof on the trial that that they had seen a person shoot Kukuczka earlier than “individuals in uniform” sealed off the passage.
Particulars of the case have been uncovered by historians, who tracked down associated recordsdata within the Stasi archives. Some paperwork linking Naumann to the killing, which had been shredded, have been reconstituted utilizing a purpose-built machine.
Kukuczka’s household was by no means formally instructed of his destiny. His ashes have been despatched to his spouse some weeks after his homicide.
The case was dropped at trial after Poland issued a European arrest warrant for Naumann in 2021.
The trial has been seen as holding particular historic significance in Germany, equally to trials of surviving Holocaust perpetrators.
Naumann at all times insisted on his innocence. His lawyer has mentioned there was no proof he carried out the killing.
East Germany was created from the elements of Germany occupied by the Soviet Union after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. It was a communist dictatorship, whereas West Germany – created from the American, British and French occupation zones – was a capitalist, democratic state.
In 1991, each nations reunified to type trendy Germany.
